Page 159 of Onyx Cage: Volume II
Finally, I skated my lips over her ample curves until I found her neck once again. I lingered over the red mark on her neck, tracing the outline with my tongue.
Mine. The word echoed in my mind as I paid careful attention to that particular spot. Rowan arched into me, her hands gripping my hair even tighter. A soft, expectant moan escaped her lips, and I couldn’t help but smirk against her skin.
She was mine—all the contradictory pieces of her—a fact I was going to remind her of for the rest of my storms-damned life.
I shifted my focus, skating my lips farther up her neck and gently scraping my teeth over her earlobe. My fingers dug into the curves of her hips as I lifted her with one arm, using the other to remove the damnable clothing that kept us separated.
A shudder ran through her. Every move I made, she pliantly followed, showing me with her body and her touch how much she was willing to trust me. Willing to let me lead her to the pleasure she knew I could bring her.
Grabbing hold of her mass of hair, I gently tugged it backward to expose more of her skin to my waiting mouth.
I took my time, savoring the taste of her until I was certain neither of us could wait any longer. Then, I pulled her closer, until her body was flush against mine and there was nothing more separating us.
Every part of her was perfect. Every sound. Every movement. Every exhale where she whispered my name like a prayer to some forgotten god.
And I accepted her offering. I craved it like a storm craves the sky.
Desperation fueled each of my movements, a hunger that only my lemmikki could satisfy.
After years of nothing but death and the looming shadow of my father’s madness haunting my every step, my every move, I thought that was all life had to offer me.
But now, I knew I could carve out an existence that included so much more. And I would be damned before I allowed anything to separate me from this one light I’d found in the darkness.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
Ishould have known better than to trust the reprieve from my father’s volatile moods.
Though Rowan and I had been fulfilling our duties during the day, I had thus far managed to avoid bringing her to dinner at court, largely because I wanted to keep her from his line of sight.
Since my duties kept me from court often enough, and since no one was under any illusions about all the reasons newlyweds might choose to spend more time in their own quarters, my absence hadn’t yet been questioned.
Until tonight, when one of the new recruits delivered a small envelope with shaking hands.
That would have been enough to tell me it was from the duke, since no one else would have sent word quite so imperiously, nor could anyone else outside of myself have caused so much terror with such a simple task. Sure enough, his aggressive script punctuated the mostly blank page.
I will see you both at dinner tonight.
That boded well. I braced myself to prepare Rowan, pushing open the door to our suites. She was in bed, already grimacing while she lazily trailed her hand along Boris’s tail.
Had she received a summons as well?
But she narrowed her eyes when she took in my features, suspicion lacing her voice when she spoke. “What?”
She must not have heard about dinner.
“Our presence is required at an estate dinner tonight,” I informed her, removing my jacket and hanging it neatly on the hook.
“Required by your father?” she clarified, though it wasn’t really a question. We both knew there was only one person in this entire estate who could require things of me.
I nodded and she let out a disgruntled sigh.
“Wonderful.” She punctuated the word with another grimace. “How did you get away with missing so many estate dinners and council meetings and, well, everything when I was here before?”
By using the excuse I had only wanted to be true.
“I told everyone I was...preoccupied with my captive,” I told her, waiting with a smirk for her inevitable indignation.
I didn’t have to wait long.